As Police Crackdown: Anti-Government Popular Uprising Continues to Grow

Kim Ives - Haiti Liberte

Massive, raucous demonstrations, sometime several times a week, have rocked Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and other provincial cities over the past two months and show no sign of subsiding, despite a lack of clear or unified leadership.

Police repression of the demonstrators has grown as their calls have morphed from denouncing a tax-laden, fee-hiking, austerity budget proposed in early September to demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse, who came to power in February following controversial, anemic elections in November 2016.

In many ways the demonstrations resemble the Caracazo uprising that erupted in Venezuela in February 1989 after President Carlos Andrés Pérez’s government implemented a package (dubbed in Venezuela “ paquete”) of neoliberal economic reforms recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The measures, featuring privatizations, public employee layoffs, and tariff reductions, included slashing gas subsidies which resulted in a 30% hike in transportation costs overnight. The Caracazo revolt led to the 1992 coup d’état attempt and subsequent 1998 election of Hugo Chavez.

Similarly, Jovenel Moïse’s Washington-influenced budget proposes a host of taxes and fees on everything from drivers licenses, vehicle registrations, and passports to a 10,000 gourdes ($157US) annual tax on expatriate Haitians.

Washington's Warmongers Are Warming Up to Trump

Trump has traded his alt-right pals for some of the most dangerous neocons in Washington.

By Ben Norton - AlterNet Gray Zone Project

In an interview in New York City with war hawk pundit Max Boot, former CIA director David Petraeus stated in no uncertain terms that President Donald Trump’s militaristic foreign policy does not represent a significant departure from that of previous administrations, and is already quickly moving “back to the norm.”

Trump’s hardcore supporters have claimed he has been resisting the U.S. “deep state”—that is to say, the key elements of the military and national security establishment that remain the same from administration to administration. Yet just eight months into his presidency, one of the most influential faces and voices of the deep state has revealed precisely the opposite: Trump’s warmongering foreign policy is largely an intensification of the status quo, not a break from it.

40 people missing as migrant vessel sinks off Haiti

AFP-

Seven people were rescued Sunday by search teams scouring the seas off the island of La Tortue, Haiti's civil emergency agency said.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - 

About 40 people are missing after a migrant vessel sunk the northern coast of Haiti, the civil emergency authorities have said.

The vessel sank after leaving La Tortue earlier in the day for Providenciales island in the northern Turks and Caicos archipelago, 200 kilometers (120 miles) to the north.

According to the survivors, three of whom were hospitalized on their return to Haiti, the vessel was carrying 50 people when it sank.

In a country where more than 60 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day, there are frequent attempts to reach the Bahamas or Turks and Caicos illegally.

Over the past five years, thousands of young Haitians have migrated to Chile or Brazil, countries where visas are more easily obtained.

Although Haitians historically have gone to the United States, and to Florida in particular, the flow of migrants has shifted to Canada and other neighboring countries.

Since a devastating earthquake in 2010, about 60,000 Haitians have found temporary protected status in the United States.

But US President Donald Trump's administration has said that status will expire at the close of 2017.

New Documentary: IT STAYS WITH US

Check out the website for the new documentary "IT STAYS WITH US" which gives voice to the victims of violent operations conducted by the UN and Haitian National Police in Cite Soleil (between 2004 and 2007).  View the full website here.

It Stays with You: Use of Force by UN Peacekeepers in Haiti

By: John Carroll, MD - Journal Star

Several days ago the UN Peacekeeping Forces (MINUSTAH) departed Haiti for the first time since 2004.

See this link which leads you to the film documentary: It Stays with You: Use of Force by UN Peacekeepers in Haiti. This film covers the “war” that occurred in Cite Soleil between MINUSTAH and Soleil gangs during the years 2005–2007. Many innocent people were caught in the middle.

This film was produced and directed by Cahal McLaughlin and Siobhan Wills.

(See this post from February, 2007.)

John A. Carroll, MD

www.haitianhearts.org

Mass hysteria of U.S. Diplomats may explain 'sonic attacks' in Cuba, say top neurologists

By: Julian Borger and Philip Jaekl - The Guardian

Senior neurologists have suggested that a spate of mysterious ailments among US diplomats in Cuba – which has caused a diplomat rift between the two countries – could have been caused by a form of “mass hysteria” rather than sonic attacks.

The unexplained incidents have prompted the US to withdraw most of its embassy staff from Havana and expel the majority of Cuban diplomats from Washington.

The neurologists who talked to the Guardian cautioned that no proper diagnosis is possible without far more information and access to the 22 US victims, who have suffered a range of symptoms including hearing loss, tinnitus, headaches and dizziness.

Mystery of sonic weapon attacks at US embassy in Cuba deepens.

Fanmi Lavalas Calls for General Strike

FANMI LAVALAS Press Release - September 30, 2017

September 30, 1991, September 30, 2017, 26 years have passed but the Haitian people have not forgotten and continue to show their attachment to President Aristide.

Fanmi Lavalas congratulates the hundreds of thousands of people who took to the streets in protest on September 30, 2017, to say no to political crime, economic crime, social crime that the coup d'etat government of the accused money-launderer are committing against the population. 26 years later, people are determined more than ever to confront the repressive forces that are exploiting and brutalizing them. From St. Jean Bosco church, through La Saline, St. Martin, Belair, up to Petionville, and Champs-de-Mars, demonstrators repeatedly demanded the resignation of the accused money-launderer.

Today again, the police are out to assassinate demonstrators, shooting directly at people, using tear gas and liquid skin irritant against protestors. Many were illegally arrested. The Fanmi Lavalas Political Organization condemns the violence and savage repression conducted by the police against demonstrators and demands the immediate liberation of all the people who were arrested.

The struggle will not stop. Fanmi Lavalas supports the call for a general strike on Monday October 2nd and Tuesday October 3rd. The system must be overturned. General mobilization everywhere in the country in whatever form. We Will Not Obey.

Alone we are weak,
Together we are strong,
All together we are Lavalas.

Executive Committee of Fanmi Lavalas